In a statement posted to its website on Thursday, Brazil’s health ministry said that two-thirds of the material gathered during recent field work with an American team would be shipped to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Dr. David Heymann, chair of WHO’s Zika emergency committee, said that virus-sharing was not discussed during the hours-long crisis meeting on Monday.
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Several news outlets reported on Friday that Brazilian researchers, where the outbreak began, have found traces of the virus not only in semen, but urine and saliva.
The potential risk of transmission through bodily fluids was highlighted in the United States where the Centers for Disease Control believe a case was spread through sex.
Elsewhere, the tiny South Pacific kingdom of Tonga has declared it has a Zika epidemic after five people tested positive for the virus and another 265 are suspected of having it.
Neither one of the women was hospitalized because of the primarily mosquito-borne virus, the release said. “Presence of virus in saliva doesn’t mean that it’s necessarily transmissible that way”.
The director of the Ector County Health Department isn’t convinced the Zika virus should be classified as a sexually transmitted disease quite yet.
US health officials say men who have visited an area with the Zika virus should use condoms if they have sex with a pregnant woman – for the entire duration of the pregnancy.
Amid an ongoing Zika outbreak, Brazilian authorities say they have detected a spike in cases of microcephaly, which leaves infants with unusually small heads and can result in brain damage and other developmental and health problems.
Health officials had previously reported isolated instances of the virus being passed via blood transfusions and sexual contact, including a US case reported this week.
“Just like a hurricane, we have to ensure Florida is safe”, Scott said yesterday, calling it prudent to prepare for the worst and hope for the best.
The virus is transmitted to people through the bite of infected female Aedes mosquitoes, the same type of mosquito that spreads dengue, chikungunya and yellow fever.
The guidance also suggests the men might consider abstaining or using condoms even with a partner who isn’t pregnant.
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Researchers across the world were reportedly being starved of access to Zika samples and information, with many countries relying on older strains from outbreaks in the Pacific and Africa for tests and research.
